Software constantly crashes, even when no files are loaded

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

First off, I already checked for other threads from people with similar issues, and while I found a number of threads from people saying that Audacity would crash while they were editing large files, I couldn’t find any others with my issue; that is, it crashes even with nothing loaded at all, simply while I’m changing settings, or even just opening the program to begin with.

I’m using the Windows 64-bit version of Audacity 3.2.1. I’ve already tried uninstalling and re-installing (and even re-downloading the latest installer from the site), but the problem hasn’t gotten any better. I’m incredibly lucky if Audacity manages to open at all within five minutes (more often than not it just gets stuck on the “Audacity” logo forever), but when it does load, it freezes and gives me the “not responding” error every time I change a setting or even just hit the “record” button.

For example, I’ve been trying to do a thing that will record my computer audio, so I followed the tutorials in the manual and changed my “Audio Settings” so that the Host is “Windows WASAPI” and the recording device is my headset with the “(loopback)” at the end of it, but as soon as I hit the “OK” button, it freezes. If I try waiting it out, it freezes again when I actually try recording (and then it doesn’t work anyways; it doesn’t end up recording at all, it just makes a weird red triangle over the track and then nothing actually happens. But one problem at a time I suppose).

I feel like this shouldn’t be a hardware issue, since I’m using a pretty powerful computer that I only bought in February 2022, but my older and far less powerful Lenovo Thinkpad never once gave me any trouble with using Audacity.

Any thoughts?


Further OS info:
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit
Device: Predator PH315-54
Processor: 11th Gen Intel, i7 Core. 2.30 GHz
RAM: 16.0 GB

2

There is an audacity folder in the hidden “AppData” folder which persists from one Audacity installation to the next.

C:\Users\YourNameHere\AppData\Roaming\audacity

If you rename* that folder, (to, say, “audacity-old”), that may enable you to start Audacity afresh.

[ * rename rather than delete as that folder contains your plugins, settings, macros ].

3

Thanks for the response. I uninstalled Audacity again, and renamed the “audacity” folder at the AppData\Roaming\ location just as you said.

After reinstalling it, I’m still having some noticeable problems (it still takes a weirdly long amount of time to load on some uses), but I’m able to actually use it now, and I was able to do some test recordings without too much difficulty. If it gives me a hard time again anytime soon, I’ll update.

Thanks again!